Salon de Magie: The Klosterman Collection Part III

JANSEN, HARRY. THE GREAT JANSEN. AMERICA’S GREATEST TRANSFORMIST. Milwaukee: American Showprint, ca. 1915. Handsome color lithograph bears a striking bust portrait of the Danish-American magician staring directly at the viewer. Framed to 32 x 25 ¼”. Old central folds visible, but not examined out of frame. Linen backed. Scarce. Jansen had a successful career in vaudeville before his initial retirement from the stage. He became a well-known builder of magic tricks and illusions, first for a Chicago-based magic firm bearing his name (Halton & Jansen), and later as the operator of Howard Thurston’s workshop on Long Island. In the 1920s, he took up the reigns of an illusion show sponsored by Thurston and was rechristened as “Dante – Europe’s Magician.” It was under this guise that he became world famous, and would go on to a career that took his around the globe, to the stages of Broadway, and even into motion pictures. This poster is from early in his career.